Hungary’s central bank is in the process of setting up an asset management agency to handle non-performing commercial real-estate loans to help banks clean up their corporate loan portfolio and boost lending, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The asset manager MARK Zrt., to be fully-owned by the central bank, will purchase bad real-estate loans and related commercial properties.

The asset manager differs from the so-called “bad banks” — its aim isn’t to support banks but to carry out real-estate purchases on a market basis, acting as a catalyst in a market that’s currently in a standstill, the central bank said. Read More »

Slovak utility Slovenske Elektrarne looks to be among the first post-communist countries in the European Union’s east to secure a non-Russian provider of enriched uranium for eventual use as fuel in Russian-designed reactors since the bloc set out a fuel-diversification goal this May.

The company has recently closed a contract with a non-Russian, unnamed supplier for deliveries of enriched uranium, Luca D’Agnese, head of Enel’s Eastern Europe operations, said in an interview.

This alternate supplier is taking a fixed portion of contracts for Slovenske Elektrarne, not merely providing an option for diversification of future supplies and deliveries should start in 2015. Read More »

BUDAPEST–U.S. agricultural and food giant Bunge Ltd. on Thursday has become embroiled in the deteriorating relations between Hungary and the U.S., with tit-for-tat allegations of corruption and tax fraud.

In the latest twist, Bunge has been accused of value-added-tax fraud at its Hungarian operations. That investigation comes just a few weeks after the U.S. banned several Hungarians, including Ildiko Vida, the head of the tax authority, or NAV, from visiting the U.S. because of corruption allegations.

In October, André Goodfriend, the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Hungary, said the visas were canceled because of “credible information that those persons are either engaging in or benefiting from corruption.” Read More »

“A corrupt government’s Tax Office is corrupt as well,” reads small Hungarian opposition party DK’s sign its activists hung on a bridge in Budapest on Nov. 5 2014.

MTI/MTVA Noemi Bruzak

BUDAPEST–The head of Hungary’s Tax Office has acknowledged she’s among those the U.S. has banned from entering because of alleged involvement in corruption amid deteriorating relations between Budapest and Washington.

Denying any wrongdoing, Ildiko Vida, president of the Hungarian Tax Office, told Hungarian national daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview published on Wednesday that she is among the six people the U.S. has banned from entry. In addition to her, several of her colleagues are also on the list, she added, declining to name them. The Tax Office’s press office confirmed Ms. Vida’s remarks.

“I didn’t commit anything, I was not and am not part of any corruption case, I am clean to face any investigation,” Ms. Vida said in the interview. Read More »

Doing business in Russia became easier and more comfortable over the past year, the World Bank’s latest annual report showed Wednesday despite a sour business sentiment on the ground.

The 2015 Doing Business study showed Russia moved up 30 places to 62nd compared with its 92nd position last year and number 111 two years ago. This brings the world’s largest country by territory closer to an ambitious target set by President Vladimir Putin who said that Russia must by in the top-20 by 2018. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested Sunday night in Budapest against the government’s plan to tax the Internet, a move they said was aimed at limiting access to information, muzzling non-government media and directing attention away from the country’s deteriorating relationship with the U.S.

The towns of Pecs, Miskolc and Veszprem also saw several hundred people demonstrating against the plan, according to the Hungarian state news agency MTI.

“They want to limit our right to information and shepherd us toward state media,” said one of the street protesters in Budapest, a logistics manager who identified himself as Berci, 55.

Under its draft 2015 tax bill submitted to parliament on Tuesday, Hungary’s government plans to impose a 150 Hungarian forint ($0.62) tax on every gigabyte of data users started. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Public outrage was mounting Wednesday in Hungary against the government’s plan to levy a hefty tax on Internet use from the start of next year, with critics saying it would be detrimental to the country’s economic development, limit access to information and hinder the freedom of expression.

By Wednesday afternoon, 15,000 Facebook users have signed up to attend a street demonstration planned for Sunday in Budapest to protest against the new tax.

A trade union of teachers PSZ, which claims to be the biggest in Hungary with 40,000 members, issued a statement, saying “this measure seriously undermines the operation of public education, limits the freedom of information, of education and the right to learn.”

Magyar Telekom Nyrt., the country’s largest telecommunications company, majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, said in an emailed statement to The Wall Street Journal that it supports the proposition of its fellow industry players that the government should revoke its plan. Read More »

The State Department refused entry to the U.S. to several Hungarians because it said they had been involved in corruption, once more highlighting tensions between the U.S. administration and the feisty government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In a statement issued by Charge’d affairs M. Andre Goodfriend the embassy said the US canceled the visas on the basis of “credible information that those persons are either engaging in or benefiting from corruption.”

The State Department didn’t disclose the names of the individuals. Mr. Goodfriend said there were less than 10 and some of them were state officials. Read More »

Hungarian and Czech output plunged in August on a set of factors including a holdup in the previously thriving automotive sector, after a few very promising months of accelerating industrial production.

Hungary’s industrial output surprisingly slowed on the year and even plunged versus the previous month as exports slowed and domestic demand contracted, preliminary data published Tuesday show.

Czech output also dropped, contrary to expectations for mild growth.Czech August industrial output declined 5.2% on the year in August, compared to analysts’ expectation of 2.9% growth. Hungary’s output rose by just 0.5% on the year, versus analysts’ forecast of 11.6%, while the monthly figure was down 5.7% on the month, the largest monthly drop since December, 2010.

In the Czech Republic, car production declined due to holidays and retooling at key car makers, while Hungary saw one of its main automotive companies halting output altogether in August due to earlier overproduction. Read More »

About Emerging Europe

Emerging Europe Real Time provides sharp analysis and insight into what’s making news in Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the expertise of our reporters in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey, the site provides an inside track on economics, politics and business in this emerging part of the European continent.